It’s the time of year when fish start swimming in the streets.
King tides, the seasonal higher-than-normal tides that can potentially bring the ocean on to the roads and yards of South Florida’s coastal neighborhoods, are expected to start rolling in on Friday.
The hope was that there wouldn’t be a repeat performance of last fall, when the tides sparked flooding up and down South Florida’s coast.
“Right now, I don’t think we’re expecting it to get out of hand,” said Robert Garcia, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Still, public officials were reminding residents to be prepared. In Fort Lauderdale, where residents of the isles neighborhoods off East Las Olas Boulevard saw their neighborhoods swamped last fall after a supermoon helped trigger unusually high king tides, officials urged residents to avoid driving down flooded streets.
They also wanted people to make sure their waste carts weren’t left outside, as the water could potentially carry them away.
“What we expect to see is some very minor localized flooding in the low-lying areas of the Las Olas isles,” said Shannon Vezina, spokesperson for the City of Fort Lauderdale.
In an effort to minimize flooding from the tides, the city said it had installed more than 100 tidal valves in affected neighborhoods, and was clearing storm drains and catch basins, removing standing water, and monitoring pump stations.
According to an advisory from the city, king tides were expected to occur Friday through Sept. 21, October 14 to 21, November 12 to 18, and December 12 to 16.
King tides, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, “occur when the orbits and alignment of the Earth, moon, and sun combine to produce the greatest tidal effects of the year.” They are typically the highest tides of the year, and usually occur in the fall.
“You have the force of the moon pulling on the oceans, or the tides,” Garcia said. “This is the time of the year that it all lines up enough that tides are a little bit higher and can cause flooding along the coast.”
Last year, the high tides also brought flooding to South Florida cities including Miami Beach, Hollywood, and Pompano Beach. In Delray Beach, the Marina Historic District was inundated, with water 10 inches deep on some properties.
John Morgan, Delray’s director of environmental services, said he’s seen fish swimming down flooded streets whenever the high tides strike.
“I was herding them on the street,” he said.
Like Fort Lauderdale, Morgan said Delray has been installing valves and taking steps to minimize flooding. He said sea-level rise has contributed to increasing the potential for flooding from the tides.
“When our seawalls were built years and years ago, the tides didn’t overtop them,” Morgan said. “Now they do.”
Vezina said that in Fort Lauderdale, tidal flooding was becoming more of a regular occurrence, with the city dealing with about 10 tidal-related events a year. She said that number was expected to rise significantly in the decades ahead.
“With climate change and sea-level rise, there are expected to be 240 tidal events [a year] by 2045,” Vezina said.
“It’s going to happen more frequently, but we’re going to adapt,” Morgan said. “The good news is that we have time to adapt.”
brettclarkson@sun-sentinel.com or Twitter @BrettClarkson_
